Accessing Conservation Literature

Often, scholarly resources are not immediately available, but paying for each article can become prohibitively expensive. Fortunately, there are several ways to acquire scholarly articles for personal and professional use. For individuals with access to a major university library system, it can be as simple as using the library web portal to access scholarly content. For those without personal or professional access to such an institution, there are several alternatives available.

This material was developed by the Book and Paper Group, but we hope it will be useful to the wider AIC community. If you have any information, especially if it relates to another specialty group, that you would like to contribute, please don't hesitate to add it.

Online Databases

A good place to start your search is on the large online databases, such as the Getty’s AATA or BCIN. Besides being excellent places to start research on any topic in conservation, both of the databases have sections on how to get access to scholarly materials. The AATA’s Help tab has a subsection on obtaining publications, and BCIN has a Document Delivery page with information on how to contact a number of international organizations for publications.

Institutional Access

A quick option is to try your local library. Many public libraries have access to large bodies of scholarly material, either through their own subscription or through partnership with another institution that subscribes. Your local librarian will often be able to tell you very quickly whether they can give you access to a particular journal or resource, and can also be helpful in honing your research questions.

Another option is to try the library of a major educational institution. Many such libraries offer ‘friend of the library’ privileges for a subscription fee. The fee can vary considerably based on the type of privilege desired, the duration of access needed and the institution itself. For example, New York University’s Bobst Library has a Friends of Bobst web page, which explains their cost structure; as of this posting, reading privileges for one academic year costs $375. The Perry-Castaneda Library in Austin Texas allows borrowing privileges to all Texas residents for $100 per year. Check your local institutions’ web pages, or ask at their information desks.

Contacting the Author / Pre-Publication Resources

It is also possible to obtain research papers directly from the author. Many journal publishers allow authors to give away a limited number of copies of their articles for free. For papers with multiple authors, each author may have a number of copies they can distribute. Contacting the authors may yield good results, with the added benefit that you have started a dialog with someone who has performed research in your field of interest. Some academic journals have more generous sharing guidelines for preprints, which are generally versions of an article which is complete, but has not been edited or formatted for publication by the journal. Taylor & Francis, the parent company that publishes the Journal of the American Institute for Conservation, maintains a ‘Sharing your Work’ page, which explains what terminology they use and how authors can share their work outside of JAIC.

Pre-publication versions of articles can sometimes be found on an author’s web page or in a preprint repository. For example, Sarah Reidell maintains a professional web site that includes a publications page, where she gives access to many of her articles. Some preprint repositories such as preprints.org, Academia.edu and Humanities Commons may also have versions of some articles.

Expanding Your Search

Once you have online access to an article, it is often possible to use that one resource to find additional resources. A backwards citation search looks at all of the works cited by the authors of an article. This is useful to find the history of the subject in question, and directs you towards more foundational research. A forwards citation search will tell you whether a work was cited by later authors in newer works, and can help you understand how research has progressed. Williams Libraries has an excellent explanation of citation searching, but many more can be found.

Journals - General

The following publications are largely peer reviewed, and are an excellent starting point for research into almost any conservation question. Please contact us if you have any publications you think should be added to this list.

Journals - Book and Paper

The following resources are focused on book and paper conservation, but may be useful to anyone in the conservation community. Please contact us if you have any publications you think should be added to this list.

American Institute for Conservation (AIC)

Annual publication of the Book and Paper Group of the AIC. Not peer reviewed. Also referred to as the Postprints of the AIC Annual Meeting.

1982 - present. One year after the Annual Meeting: published in print (black and white); Two years after the Annual Meeting: digital copy (in color) available to BPG Members though MemberFuse; Three years after the Annual Meeting: open access.